Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

Like the Russian Progress re-supply ship, the much heavier 20.7-tonne ATV can dock safely to the ISS in the unlikely event of total absence of crew on board. The ATV will supply the ISS with pressurized cargo, water, air, nitrogen and oxygen, and attitude control propellant. It will also be used to remove waste from the station and to re-boost the ISS to a higher altitude. The European Space Agency also considered using the Ariane-5/ATV to launch the Columbus laboratory. Although no human beings will ever be launched in a JulesVerne-ATV, astronauts - in shorts and T-shirts - will be able to access its cargo during the six-month stay and remove the payload: supplies, science hardware, parcels of fresh food, mail and family tapes or DVDs. Although the concept of a space tug or transfer vehicle for moving astronauts and equipment to different Earth orbits has been envisioned for decades by different space agencies, the European built ATV will be the most powerful space tug ever built.

Although ATV will dock to the Russian Zvezda module, it will carry most of its dry payload for the US elements of the ISS. At the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, six weeks before flight, Jules Verne will be loaded with 1 300 kg of dry cargo out of the 5 500 kg maximum capacity. Most of the dry cargo provided by NASA will be clothes, food, towels and wipes for the crew, logistics items such as batteries and spare parts for maintenance of the Station. This cargo will also include ESA experiments, for Jules Verne, the ISS partners have decided to bring the Russian type of water, basis for Roskosmos standard water is to have some amount of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and fluoride. It is disinfected with silver obtained via electrolysis. Jules Vernes mission will be much more complex than the future routine ATV missions since it will actually demonstrate that the ATV can automatically and safely handle any contingency plans designed to ensure the safety of the ISS crew, such as interrupting the rendezvous, stopping its motion and flying away from the ISS. If required in future programmes, the ATV could also evolve to be used as a transfer vehicle carrying tonnes of supplies to the Moon orbit and beyond. Ariane's Jules Verne payload also provides living quarters, it can remain docked for up to 6 months and ATV becomes an extension of the station.

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Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

ATV ready in 2007http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=3964The European Space Agency (ESA) Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spaceship should be ready to support International Space Station supply missions in 2007, according to ATV Project Manager John Ellwood.

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

At the moment the ATV does not need to fly there is nothing on the ISS for it to service a progress capsule is perfect for the supply run.

At the moment with the small crew compliment and no science modules the ATV would just be a supply run overkill. ESA just does not have to rush now does it.

A moot point as ATV has had many technical problems with its valve-actuators, solar arrays and flight software, so it can't fly anyway.

Moot point indeed but for ESA which had 98% ready by 2004 they knew they had a lot of time before they where going to be needed.

Still for ESA why rush there is no use for the initial ATV "Jules Verne". Certainly what it was designed to support is still sitting in a warehouse. And those problems where long fixed actually since the initial plan and since they dont have anything else to do they have improved the solar panel and power supply to the ATV's

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

At the moment the ATV does not need to fly there is nothing on the ISS for it to service a progress capsule is perfect for the supply run.

At the moment with the small crew compliment and no science modules the ATV would just be a supply run overkill. ESA just does not have to rush now does it.

A moot point as ATV has had many technical problems with its valve-actuators, solar arrays and flight software, so it can't fly anyway.

Moot point indeed but for ESA which had 98% ready by 2004 they knew they had a lot of time before they where going to be needed.

The Euros should fly it, ISS needs all the support it can get. The Shuttle is still being looked at and it is getting delayed again so groups like ESA, Japan or Russia need to help out NASA with some Russian-Progress and ATV flights.

'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

The Euros should fly it, ISS needs all the support it can get. The Shuttle is still being looked at and it is getting delayed again so groups like ESA, Japan or Russia need to help out NASA with some Russian-Progress and ATV flights.

The ATV will replace the progres flights it cannot do the job that the shuttle will do which is to deliver modules and components for ISS core construction. The only people to benefit from the ATV taking over the Supply run is the Russians. The Japanese supply vessels will use the port that the Shuttle will be docked too and are listed for science supplies.

The ATV is not needed until the ISS is more completed there is just not a need for the stores it delivers, progress works fine at the moment especially with the ATV going to be docked on the Russian port and as such with there large stores they would block that port for Soyuz crew flights.

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

Successful downlink communication test for ATV from ISS27 March 2006http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMUSSM65LE_index_1.htmlOn 8 March 2006, 352 kilometres above the Earth, over three orbital passes, the proximity communication link - indispensable for the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) planned for next year - was able to transmit "loud and clear" signals from the Station to two ground stations in Spain during a downlink test. This ground track graphic shows how the ISS passed over Gran Canaria and Madrid.

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

Acoustic testing of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), has successfully been completed at ESA's test facilities in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The 11-tonne test configuration of the ATV Flight Model (the actual flight launch mass is 20.5 tonnes) was transferred to the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) with the help of an air cushion transfer pad.Jules Verne passes acoustic testThe ATV, an unmanned vehicle that will deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), will be put into orbit by the European Ariane-5 launcher. Acoustic testing is vital to ensure the ATV can withstand the vibrations caused by the extreme noise levels generated during launch.

'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

14 June 2007Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is ready for launch and will be shipped to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in mid-July for a launch campaign that will last several months.

The on-going qualification review, launcher availability (a specially built Ariane 5 version) and 'heavy traffic' at the International Space Station towards the end of the year, lead to a revised launch window that sees now a possibility for the Jules Verne ATV to lift-off not earlier than mid-January 2008.

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

Does anyone know how many Gs the craft will be subjected to? Just wondering if it could be modified to carry humans.

"I guarantee you that at some point, everything's going to go south on you, and you're going to say, 'This is it, this is how I end.' Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work." - Mark Watney

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

Does anyone know how many Gs the craft will be subjected to? Just wondering if it could be modified to carry humans.

No numbers, but surely higher than Shuttle or Soyuz. Astronauts can survive higher launch accelerations within reason, so that may not be a big problem. However, neither ATV or its Ariane 5 launcher are human rated. Given the Ariane 5 flight record, it would be far too risky to fly people with it. Human rating ATV and Ariane 5 would be extremely expensive. In any case ATV is a disposable cargo carrier, it can't survive reentry, so how would astronauts return?

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

The European Automated Transfer Vehicle is a new generation of unpiloted cargo carriers designed to supply the International Space Station with liquid and dry cargo as well as gases. It has a substantially greater cargo capacity than the Russian Progress cargo carrier that has proven itself a reliable workhorse.

The ATVs – the first is named Jules Verne – will, like its sister cargo carriers, launch from French Guiana on an Ariane 5. The Kourou launch site is about 5 degrees north of the Equator, giving the Ariane almost full advantage of the Earth's rotation.

The ATV is more than 32 feet long and almost 15 feet in diameter. It has a dry weight of about 23,000 pounds. It docks automatically with the station, though station crew members can take charge of the process if difficulties arise.

It can carry more than 16,800 pounds of cargo. It can take to the station as much as 12,000 pounds of dry cargo, almost 1,850 pounds of water, as much as 220 pounds of gases, and up to 1,890 pounds of propellant for the station.

Additionally, tanks for its own engines can hold more than 10,000 pounds of propellant for its own four main engines and 28 attitude control thrusters. The ATV's main engines can reboost the station, and its thrusters can provide station attitude control.

Once its standard racks are emptied (it can accommodate eight of them) and other dry cargo is transferred from its 1,685-cubic-foot pressurized cargo area and liquids and gases are moved into station tanks, the ATV becomes a garbage container. It can load more than 13,800 pounds of dry and liquid wastes, which with the spacecraft are incinerated on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

No numbers, but surely higher than Shuttle or Soyuz. Astronauts can survive higher launch accelerations within reason, so that may not be a big problem. However, neither ATV or its Ariane 5 launcher are human rated. Given the Ariane 5 flight record, it would be far too risky to fly people with it. Human rating ATV and Ariane 5 would be extremely expensive. In any case ATV is a disposable cargo carrier, it can't survive reentry, so how would astronauts return?

numbers are:

It's about 4.5g, just prior to solid booster burnout and 3.5g at EPC shutdown. The upperstage flight is < 1g (around or slightly above 1g at shutdown).

Man rating would cost about a billion euros, flight record looks good if you remove first “ops, I didn’t see that as a problem, when we designed it” flights. You could put capsule on top of a propulsion module, but there doesn’t seem to be that much interest in spending the money to do that.

Re: Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - ESA ISS cargo carrier

Yes, those are believable numbers. However, there are none easily findable on the Arianespace or ESA websites. BTW at second stage shutdown the acceleration is zero

Where did that number of €1B come from? Seems low considering they would have to upgrade almost everything on the vehicle and add an abort system. NASA are spending about €8B on Ares I and that is derived from human rated hardware. ESA have a track record of being expensive compared with NASA, they have less experience and more bureaucracy.

Having typed that, ESA said they are considering man rating Ariane 5 ... see my last but one message. There should be details of the previous attempt to do this for the Hermes project.